Editing Diego Rivera (section)

===Art education and circle===
From the age of ten, Rivera studied art at the [[Academy of San Carlos]] in [[Mexico City]]. He was sponsored to continue study in Europe by [[Teodoro A. Dehesa Méndez]], the governor of the State of [[Veracruz]]. After arriving in Europe in 1907, Rivera first went to [[Madrid, Spain]] to study with Eduardo Chicharro.

From there he went to Paris, a destination for young European and American artists and writers, who settled in inexpensive flats in [[Montparnasse]]. His circle frequented [[La Ruche (residence)|La Ruche]], where his Italian friend [[Amedeo Modigliani]] painted his portrait in 1914.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/32357038@N08/3590825086/ |title=Modigliani, Amedeo - 1914 Portrait of Diego Rivera (Museo de Arte, Sao Paolo, Brazil) &#124; Flickr - Photo Sharing! |date=June 2, 2009 |publisher=Flickr |access-date=December 8, 2011}}</ref> His circle of close friends included [[Ilya Ehrenburg]], [[Chaïm Soutine]], Modigliani and his wife [[Jeanne Hébuterne]], [[Max Jacob]], gallery owner [[Léopold Zborowski]], and [[Moise Kisling]]. Rivera's former lover Marie Vorobieff-Stebelska (Marevna) honored the circle in her painting ''Homage to Friends from Montparnasse'' (1962).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/exhibitions/?id=140&year=2003&pic=4 |title=M. Marevna, 'Homage to Friends from Montparnasse', 1962, A private collection, Moscow |publisher=The State Russian Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011211113/http://rusmuseum.ru/eng/exhibitions/?id=140&year=2003&pic=4 |archive-date=October 11, 2007 |access-date=December 14, 2007}}</ref>

In those years, some prominent young painters were experimenting with an art form that would later be known as [[Cubism]], a movement led by [[Pablo Picasso]] and [[Georges Braque]]. From 1913 to 1917, Rivera enthusiastically embraced this new style.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Millet, Francis Davis (1846-1912), artist and writer |last=Gale |first=Robert L. |date=February 2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |series=American National Biography Online |doi = 10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1700588}}</ref> Around 1917, inspired by [[Paul Cézanne]]'s paintings, Rivera shifted toward [[Post-Impressionism]], using simple forms and large patches of vivid colors. His paintings began to attract attention, and he was able to display them at several exhibitions.

Rivera claimed in his autobiography that, while in Mexico in 1904, he engaged in cannibalism, pooling his money with others to "purchase cadavers from the city morgue" and particularly "relish[ing] women's brains in vinaigrette".<ref>Rivera, Diego, ''My Art, My Life: An Autobiography'' (with Gladys March), New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1991, p. 20; originally published by The Citadel Press, New York, 1960.</ref><ref>[http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/98/12/20/reviews/981220.20kimmelt.html ''Sleeping With the Enemy'']</ref><ref>[http://www.diegorivera.com/?p=83 An experiment in cannibalism]</ref> This claim has been considered factually suspect<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6L7bToxDZL0C&q=%22diego+rivera%22&pg=PA209 Lewis F. Petrinovich, ''The Cannibal Within''], Transaction Publishers, 2000, {{ISBN|0202369501}}</ref> or an elaborate lie.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zZbqAAAAMAAJ&q=diego+rivera,+cannibalism Pete Hamill, ''Diego Rivera''], Harry N. Abrams, 1999, {{ISBN|0810932342}}</ref> He wrote in his autobiography:<!-- name and publication date, page --> "I believe that when man evolves a civilization higher than the mechanized but still primitive one he has now, the eating of human flesh will be sanctioned. For then man will have thrown off all of his superstitions and irrational taboos."<ref>Rivera, Diego, ''My Art, My Life: An Autobiography'' (with Gladys March), 1991, p. 21.</ref>